A Curiosity of Jackdaws, a conundrum of Jackdaws...

 ....well actually it's a clattering of Jackdaws!! Who knew?

But anyway ..... 

Some facts and myths here

On the 29th of last month a Jackdaw was noisily  poking about a small patch of grass sandwiched between a gazillion feral doves, the bottle bank and the public loos.  It suddenly made me think how few Jackdaws I'd seen locally so, back at base, I checked my notes (virtually all available notes, i.e. those not lost over the years, now computerised) and found the following.

1) Not a single record in this approximately 18-20 hectare plot since moving here in 1966!!

2) Not a single record for Hampshire nor Sussex over the same time period with the exception of 'January Big days' where every species was recorded - all of these were this century.

3) Just recorded as a 'padder' species in European trips to Spain (4), Estonia, La Brenne, Sweden, Bulgaria, Lesbos, Hungary and Greece.

Digging further showed an almost  identical pattern for Rook and Crow and Magpie, although the latter two are numerous and have always been so in this 'patch'. Jay gets slightly better cover in terms of records but still on only 40 out of 5200+ entries and again biased towards 'big days' or site 'padders'.  Being historically rarer Raven gets much better treatment and I would suspect every sighting would have been logged, certainly in UK terms.

I think the above proves nothing other than I'm  a useless note-taker🤐

Anyway, back to Jack pictured below who is still present up to today, very noisy, very approachable and seems to think he's a pigeon. When not around the pond he's been exploring nearby roofs. Soon after it's arrival local Hants birders recorded 4500+ moving over a few days at a variety of sites with the largest group being 950,  so maybe a few are going to stop off and explore new sites like this one. Interesting to see if can attract others and  clutter up someone's chimney next spring!!

Three week summary - Local birds

Well it's pushing a month since the last post due to a number of factors. Obviously continuing Covid and personal health issues affect outings but the early part of the month saw fuel shortages compounding things especially with a virtually empty tank. Once sorted the car was out of MOT for over a week. With that in mind it's mostly been local walks and pretty little wildlife. 

So just a few things of note:- 

Jackdaw... See next post

Jay... One to three birds on many days usually flying with acorn-stuffed beaks 

Grey Wagtail... One or two birds on many days but frequently heard-only. Two together on pond edge twice.

Pied Wagtail... Becoming more regular with up to 20 using the refuge field

Kestrel... A male hunting along 'Butterfly alley' on one date, a female on another and both together briefly on a third day. A second male was seen distantly dive-bombing a Buzzard.

Buzzard...Two birds on the refuge field were harrased into the taller trees whilst a third bird flew in from the north.

Sparrowhawk... Regular for the first couple of weeks;  typically one of male, female or youngster but two birds circling together on one date.

Chiffchaff...  A handful of birds on most dates but have dwindled away since mid-month to a singleton today (27th). One inspecting flower pots in the garden was the first in the garden for ages.

Cetti's... Singles twice, once heard only.

Kingfisher... The star bird, my first here and with no other GoB records. Seen by a member of the public, seemingly absent on the next day but present and calling frequently on day 3 before departing east over Squirrel Wood, presumably with no intention of returning!! 

Grey Heron... One and sometimes two present. One watched eyeing up the smallest terrapin on a bough just below it but it escaped into the water as the heron pounced.

Little Egret... One present day roosting/resting on many days usually on the same branch.

Shoveler... Built up from two to a dozen before all disappearing. Today saw two birds reappear.

A couple of trips to TH and one to Pulborough and WWT (on the same date) produced little other than singles of Hobby on two consecutive dates and a couple of Marsh Harriers the best being an adult at TH. Finally another Kingfisher, this time at Heath Pond, my second there and only the fourth on GoB although I guess locals, fishermen and other pond users probably seem them now and then and they go unrecorded.